Okay, I remember the day I left rehab back in 1999/2000, a lady told me "you're now a new person, so instead of entering you're old life, enter a new one with an entirely new out look". I did relapse after that, but her saying that motivated me to avoid all the old "places".

If you think about it, once you've recovered a bit, you are an entirely new person. It's not the addict, and not even the person from before. The person from before wouldn't know the hardships of an addict, therefore would be considered naive. An addict knows one thing, how to get messed up, and a recoverer knows the hardships, knows the addict, and knows the fear of the future and the hard work involved. I personally think the recover has the knowledge needed for success.

You're a good sponsor if you have sponsees making it this far. My goal is to one day help juveniles with this problem, after my degree. I might be asking for advice in the future..lol